Quality Assurance in Psychiatric Occupational Therapy by Treatment Manuals: Patients’ Perceptions of Resistance- and Regeneration-specific Occupational Therapy

Abstract

Abstract Objectives Training, treatment and quality assurance in occupational therapy need guidelines and manuals. Two manuals and corresponding manual adherence checklists were developed for resistance- and regeneration-oriented treatment strategies, which are standard in occupational therapy. The hypothesis is that occupational therapists can apply different treatments and that this can be measured. Methods In a psychiatric-psychosomatic rehabilitation hospital, 108 patients were randomly assigned to the regeneration group and 113 to the resistance group. Patients were asked to indicate on a manual adherence checklist which interventions they had experienced during treatment. Additionally, a convenience sample of 124 patients who had not participated in the special groups but only in routine occupational therapy was interviewed at the end of the hospital stay. Results Resistance-oriented interventions were significantly more often reported in the resistance group and regeneration-oriented intervention was reported in the regeneration group. Conclusions The study demonstrates that the occupational therapy can be standardised according to treatment manuals and that protocol adherence can be ascertained, similar to that in other psychotherapies. This is important for training, practice, research and quality control, as manual guided and monitored treatment allows transparency in regard to what should and what has been done in therapy.